YouTube TV has now started testing Multiview support for news and weather, offering subscribers even more ways to watch additional content on the same screen at the same time.
YouTube TV’s Multiview is one of the biggest changes to the live TV service in recent times, as it opens up the possibility of watching multiple feeds and channels on the one screen at the same time. However, it has only been available in a limited capacity so far, and almost exclusively for live sports.
Now, YouTube TV appears to be in the process of widening content support for Multiview. Specifically, YouTube TV has confirmed that it is now beginning to test support for “5 brand new multiview streams that will be available to watch 24/7.”
According to the announcement, the new test began today and can be accessed via the Home tab (in a new “Watch in multiview” section), where users will see new Multiview options for watching news, sports, business news, weather, and Deportes.
However, YouTube TV does note that the test is currently only available to “a small portion of members” and that the service will be “gradually rolling this out to all subscribers over the summer.”
From what we understand, users are only able to choose between different pre-selected Multiview experiences, they are not able to select their own Multiview setup. For example, choosing news or weather and having whatever collection of Multiview streams YouTube TV has pre-selected for that experience, with a total of five different Multiview experiences to choose from.
The rolling out of YouTube TV’s Multiview feature has been a slow process so far. So slow, in fact, that it has received criticism from an advertising watchdog over claims that the feature is not as widely available as YouTube’s marketing materials might suggest.
Whether that’s true or not, the latest change does at least highlight that YouTube is not only working on improving the feature, but also improving the content that Multiview supports.
